


The Path Less Traveled By

by BrownieFox



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: AU, Gen, Time Travel, characters added as we go, i love joe way too much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2019-08-02 22:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16314212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownieFox/pseuds/BrownieFox
Summary: Joe wakes up moments before going to the Digital World with a memory of the future and no idea what to do with it





	1. Chapter 1

Joe woke up under a thick and warm blanket with a vaguely familiar woman standing over him. His head hurt and he blinked, searching for his last memory. He had been in Odaiba, Myotismon’s digimon were causing havoc everywhere, attacking everything, and then… nothing.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” The lady smiled down at him. “You looked like you took quite a slip in the snow out there.”

Snow? It was the middle of summer, blazing heat everyday that Joe had been home. Maybe one of the digimon had done something… Joe reached up and sure enough there was a bandage around his head. At least it explained why his head hurt.

“Uh, excuse me, miss, but did I have a white stuffed animal with me?” Her brow furrowed and she shook her head.

“No, but you did have the emergency bag with you.” She reached down and lifted up a very familiar tan bag with a red cross in the center. “The chart says it’s Mimi’s turn to carry it though.”

“What?!” Joe janked the bag out of her hands, looking through it. Everything they had started their journey with was still in there; the food, the matches, the emergency blanket. “What day is it?”

“August first. Did Mimi try and convince you that it was yesterday so she wouldn’t have to carry it?” The woman - camp counselor, now Joe remembered where he’s seen her - gave him a pitying look. 

“Uh, y-ye, n… no. I must’ve just forgotten.” Joe let the lie fall from his lips and prayed that the counselor didn’t notice how much his voice was shaking. Joe rubbed his head, gently where the most pain was, and looked around the room he was in. He recognized the cabin that the camp counselors stayed in and that was now swarming with the other campers. Near the door, Joe could see Izzy frowning at his laptop, but the other five digidestines - could he call them that if he wasn’t sure it was true? - were nowhere to be seen. 

With the bag in his arms still, Joe got off the bed. 

“Maybe you should rest a bit more.” The camp counsellor advised. Joe didn’t respond right away, deep in thought.

It was all so insane, thinking back on it, on the impossible dreams or memories or whatever that were at the forefront of his mind. Digimon and crests, a digital world and a big destiny and another half in the form of a weird and small sealion monster. But if it was all a dream… why was there still snow in the middle of summer?

“... do you think we should put more supplies in the emergency bag? What with all the snow?” Joe asked. 

“That’s, actually a great idea Joe. Let’s see what we have…” Joe followed the woman around the small cabin as she picked out another emergency blanket, a bit more food, and some extra matches. The bag hadn’t been too heavy to begin with, and luckily the extra items didn’t weigh it down too much. If it was all a dream, that was okay (no it wasn’t), but if it was like some kind of weird prophecy he had witnessed, he didn’t want to start taking any chances. 

He watched as Izzy got up and went out into the snow. 

“I’m going to give this to Mimi now.” He told the woman and didn’t wait for an answer, following the kid genius out the door. 

Mimi was indeed out there, as were the rest of the kids he so clearly knew, though they barely gave him a glance. He didn’t take offense from that though, seeing as they were all looking at the Aurora Borealis shining like ribbons in afternoon sky. He knew what was coming next, some nights in the Digital World he’d dream of this moment over and that maybe he missed his and was left behind, or he got to the Digital World and ended up far away from the others, already on Server Island, and died alone. 

The digivices fell, hitting the ground at each other their feet, and Joe squeezed his eyes shut against their bright light. They floated up, out of the snow and into the hands of their respective Chosen Child. Joe caught his, unsure what to think. Was this another dream? But the cold snow slowly melting into his shoes seemed too real, the odd warmth of the digivice warming his chilled hands.

And then The Wave.

It surged up, above the tree line, seemingly manifesting out of thin air, and Joe only had enough time to catch a deep breath before it washed him and the other six before retreating like the tide and pulling them with it to the Digital World. Joe tried to stay awake, but like the first time - like his dream - darkness overtook him.

The first time he had woken up that day, it was somewhat gradual. This time, he popped right up. Legs scrambling to get under him as an initial reaction. Joe’s struggling stopped when he realized he knew where he was.

Of course.

The next part.

Being in the Digital World.

Joe stood up, brushing dirt off of his legs and arms. He didn’t really think this was a dream, one doesn’t usually fall asleep and wake up within one. Was he really in the past? Why? 

Despite knowing so much more than the Joe who has gone through this before, he felt more confused than before.

“You’re here.”

The voice, despite how familiar it was, made Joe jump as he spun to look at the tree behind him. The brown digimon rubbed his eyes and then continued to stare at Joe. 

“Uh-“

Was all Joe could manage to say. He hadn’t even started to think about this part. Bukamon. His partner, his best friend. Except it wasn’t his Bukamon, it was the one who had never evolved past In-Training form, who would be seeing a human for the first time.

“You really did come today.” Bukamon hopped down to the forest floor, and when he looked at Joe again his eyes were watering. “H-hey there, I-I’m Buka-... B… I CAN’T DO THIS!”

Bukamon flew across the distance between them and latched onto Joe’s leg. 

“Bukamon?”

“I CAN’T DO THIS AGAIN JOE I JUST CAN’T I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS ALONE AND WITH NO ONE ELSE REMEMBERING AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO DO!” Bukamon cried, and Joe slowly knelt down, feeling tears prick in his own eyes. He hadn’t realized just exactly how afraid he was to be alone until this very moment.

“Bukamon, I’m here.” Joe wrapped his arms around the small sea-horse like digimon

“JOE!” Bukamon cuddled in closer. “Joe, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, Bukamon,” Joe sighed, looking past Bukamon’s orange plume and out into the digital forest, “But first, we need to find the others.” 


	2. Chapter 2

Bukamon sat himself on Joe’s shoulder as the two of them picked a direction and walked. They had to run into somebody eventually.

“The last thing I remember is being in your world.” Bukamon said as he looked around, seeing if he could stop anybody.

“Same here. Do you think a digimon did this?” It certainly wasn’t anything humans were capable of making happen. But Bukamon shook his head.

“No, I’ve never heard of this happening. If it _was_ a digimon, they’d have to be really powerful, stronger than even Myotismon.” The thought of something even more powerful than Myotismon sent a shiver down Joe’s spine. 

“Great, and we haven’t even managed to defeat  _ him  _ yet.” Joe sighed. 

“Hey, look on the bright side. Maybe whatever did this is on our side.” Bukamon patted Joe’s cheek. Joe shook his head.

“With our luck? I doubt it.” There was a beat of silence before a thought struck Joe. “Hey, why are you still Bukamon anyway? You’re not hungry, are you?” 

“No, not right now.” Bukamon conceded. “But there’s not really much reason to digivolve right now anyway.”

“But don’t you want to be Gomamon?” Joe took out his digivice. Bukamon seemed to consider that. 

“I mean, yeah, but I’m not sure I can do that yet?” Joe gave him a confused look. Bukamon sighed. “I can’t explain it as well as some of the others, but, I mean, no sane digimon would stay in their In-Training form if they can help it. But there’s just a connection between us yet?” Bukamon made a frustrated sound. “You should ask Motimon when we see him, I think he gets it.”

They continued on, Bukamon at some point settling himself on top of Joe's head, chin resting on Joe’s forehead. It wasn’t long until they came across most of the others. They all already had their digimon, the humans and digital creature regarding each other curiously. Joe thought back to the first time he saw Bukamon. The little guy had wandered up to him and Joe had  _ screamed,  _ running off in a random direction as the digimon merrily and easily kept pace behind him.

“Wow, even you Joe?” Tai commented, walking up to him. 

“Yeah, it’s uh, really weird.” Joe couldn’t find it in himself to even try and be scared or surprised. As much as a part of him hated it and found it weird, he’d gotten used to the digimon all around him all the time. He felt more at home in this ragtag group of humans and digimon than he’d ever felt in the digital world. 

“Nice to meet you all, I’m Bukamon!” Bukamon lept down to join the group of other digimon and smiled up at the others, no sign of the small break down he’d had just a little while ago. He looked around the group, head cocked to the side. “Has anybody seen Tanemon?”

“Maybe she’s still looking for her Chosen Child.” Motimon suggested.

“Chosen Child?” Izzy frowned at the name. He looked at the group. “Wait, where’s Mimi?”

“Picking flowers?” Tai suggested just as a scream filled the otherwise quiet forest. 

“Mimi!” Sora yelled and took off farther into the forest. Joe followed behind her, the rest of the digimon following along. Right, the Kuwagamon. Joe knew they’d - he’d - faced worse, but right now all of their digimon were in In-Training forms. Every step towards Mimi meant a step closer to the Kuwagamon, and Joe could feel tremors of fear starting to make themselves known.

“We’ve made it through this before, I’ll be okay.” The familiar voice of Bukamon reassured Joe, and he looked down to see the digimon was right beside him. Joe swallowed nervously and nodded. Right. This was nothing he hadn’t done before.

Still, his legs locked up as they stood right at the treeline, Mimi and Tanemon running towards them with the Kuwagamon in hot pursuit. She made it to them as the bug digimon swooped over head, shaving off branches of the trees as he passed. Mimi collapsed to her knees, trembling, and Tanemon tried to soothe her.

“Are you okay Mimi?” She asked and her Digidestine gave a shaky nod.

“Yeah, I’m okay Tanemon.”

“Don’t you worry, I’m here to protect you.” Tanemon promised, nestling close to Mimi, and Mimi gently pet the top of Tanemon’s leaves. 

“We can’t stop now,” Matt helped pull Mimi to her feet, “That thing’s on its way back!”

Joe sighed did his best to not trip and keep pace with the group as they fled, ducking every now and then as Kuwagamon passed over the heads. But eventually the forest ran out of trees and they came to another spot that had plagued Joe’s nightmares: The Cliff. Joe clenched his shaking fists. Dang it, this was his second time being backed into this corner! He should’ve found a way to avoid it!

“We’ll need to find another way down.” Tai said as he looked down the cliff. 

“We don’t have time!” Sora cried as the trees shook before revealing Kuwagamon’s bright red carapace. Koromon, the crazy brave digimon he was, tried to fight him off with some bubbles but to no avail. When he went down though, the other digimon cried out and jumped up to try and at least disorient the Champion level digimon. 

“BUKAMON!” Joe ran after his partner, not caring to see where the Kuwagamon had landed. He scooped the brown digimon into his arms, and Bukamon gave a chuckle.

“It didn’t work last time either.”

“Why did you do it?! What if he’d hit you worse?!” Joe cried, wanting to hug Bukamon tightly to his chest but not wanting to hurt him further and risk doing too much damage.

“We have to try still, right?” 

The Kuwagamon reared back up, screeching, and Joe followed Bukamon to the edge of the cliff. 

“This is what we were made for!” Koromon cried out, leaping out of Tai’s arms. “We have to stand and fight!”

“But you can’t take him, he’s too strong!” Tai argued as slowly each and every Chosen Child lost their battle to keep a hold of their digimon. Joe looked down at Bukamon, who just looked right back up. If things went the same way as last time, it would be okay, but it was still terrifying to let the little guy try and take on such a big and fearsome opponent. He knelt down and let Bukamon out of his arms to join this others. 

“You… YOU CAN DO IT BUKAMON!” Joe yelled, his voice joining the chorus as the others called out to their digimon. 

He hadn’t noticed it the first time, but through the roar of emotions and adrenaline and fear running through his system there was Something Else. And that Something Else shifted Something Big as the sky opened up and the digimon were enveloped in rainbow light. His digivice gave the tell-tale  _ ‘SCREEEEE’  _ that signaled a digivolution. 

“Whoa.” Matt breathed, staring at Gabumon. 

“They’re… bigger.” Tai said, jaw practically on the ground. Six of the digimon surged forward to take on Kuwagamon, but Gomamon hung back, going up to Joe. 

“They’ve got this.” He said in reply to Joe’s questioning look, going past Joe and up to the ledge. “We need to get out of here though. Palmon! I need your help!” The plant digimon turned around as the other five continued to keep the Kuwagamon distracted. 

“Yeah Gomamon?” 

“I’m going to need you to lower everybody down to the water.” Gomamon instructed before jumping down to the river below.

“But I can’t swim!” TK grabbed onto his brother’s leg. 

“It’s okay, we’re not going to swim.” Joe reassured the youngest digidestined. He peeked over the ledge to where Gomamon was already amassing a swarm of fish to carry them. Joe tried not to think about the distance. “Palmon, can you get us down to him?”

“No problem!” Palmon waved and her claws extended into vines, wrapping around the humans and pulling them over. A few who hadn’t caught on to what was going on yelped in surprise, and Tai actually started to try and tear through the vine before realizing it was one of their digimon doing it. 

“I figured we might as well skip the big fall this time.” Gomamon gave Joe a big toothy grin and Joe scratched the digimon’s head. 

“Ooh, they’re such pretty colors.” Mimi cooed, staring at the multi-colored fish. Once all of the Digidestined were down safely the digimon hopped down next.

“Everybody buckled in?” Gomamon asked, and then didn’t wait for an answer as he ordered, “Onward, Fish Buddies!” 

The Kuwagamon tried to keep up, but it seemed too tired from being attacked by so many Rookies at once to keep up, eventually falling behind with a frustrated roar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is shorter than i usually like to make chapters, but it seemed like a good stopping point :P


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the day was mostly a blur. The group eventually got off the fish and started walking, hoping to find something or someone eventually. Food was sorted out, Agumon digivolved into Greymon, and eventually they found a small island and a trolley car to rest for the night. Joe was oddly quiet for most of it, and Gomamon followed suit, figuring his partner probably had a reason for it. Just as they were settling, Gomamon started to bring up the Seadramon they’d encountered before, but Joe had grabbed his and covered his mouth.

Now, bellies full of fish and claiming they were foraging for extra food, Joe and Gomamon grouped together in the forest quite a distance from the others, more than far enough that not even Gabumon would be able to hear them. Joe found a rock to sit on and now he was nearly tearing his hair out. 

“What are we going to do, Gomamon?!” Joe moaned, and Gomamon but his head against the Chosen Child’s leg. 

“Do things better this time, hopefully.”

“But what if we mess things up? Maybe we take a wrong turn, and then Patamon never digivolves to Angemon, or Sora never finds her crest, or-” 

“Calm down, Joe,” Gomamon hopped up onto his lap, “If it’s meant to be, I’m sure It’ll happen.”

“What if we just traded places with past Joe and Gomamon, and now they’re stuck in Odaiba while Myotismon is taking over, and now we’re messing up the past so bad everybody dies!” Gomamon tilted his head as Joe’s breaths became faster. After a moment, the digimon gently knocked his head into Joe’s stomach.

“No, I don’t think that’s what happened. You’d still have your crest then. And don’t be silly Joe, you have me! And I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” Joe went quiet, and eventually his breathing evened back out.

“... do you think you can still digivolve?” Gomamon blinked at the odd and sudden question. Huh. He hadn’t thought that far.

“I don’t know. Why?” Joe’s head tilted so that he was looking upwards, but one of his hands was scratching the top of Gomamon’s head. 

“I… I’d feel a lot safer if I knew you could.” Joe admitted. Gomamon pressed his head into Joe’s scratches for a moment longer before hopping off his lap and hopping away until there was a good amount of space between them. 

“Well, let’s try then.” Gomamon wiggled in place, trying to prepare himself for a digivolution. At first, digivolution was hard and he’d only been able to do it when Joe was in trouble. At some point though, it got easier. Gomamon looked into Joe’s eyes, and the Digidestined stood up, digivice in hand, and nodded to his partner. 

Gomamon took a deep breath in, and it happened like it always did. Energy flowed into him, and he pulled it with just as much strength, building it up inside of him until the small form of a Gomamon was no longer sufficient to contain it. His form fell away for a breath, the data pure and without a container, before some part of it took control. Shape returned to him, now bigger and stronger than before.

When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer looking up at Joe, but down. The kid gave a sigh of relief, walking forward and hugging one of his legs.

“Good to see you again, Ikkakumon.”

Ikkakumon gave a rumbled laugh and lifted his leg with Joe still on it, placing his partner on his head. 

“Well, we shouldn’t go back empty handed, let’s see how many fish I can catch as Ikkakumon.”

oOo

Joe returned to camp with his arms filled with fish. Gomamon was back to being Gomamon, but the knowledge that their bond was still strong took some of the weight and fear off of Joe. Everybody was awake, and Joe wasn’t too surprised to see Garurumon standing on the shore. 

“Joe, you’re okay!” Sora was the one who noticed him, and the attention turned away from the champion-level digimon and to Joe. Joe nodded towards them, hands preoccupied holding the fish. 

“Heya guys! Looks like we really missed out on some fun!” Gomamon greeted, bounding forward to stare up at Garurumon. The giant wolf glowed for a moment, his form shrinking until Gabumon stood in his place.

“I’ll say. I’ve never seen a Seadramon looking so upset.” Gabumon replied. “But nothing I couldn’t handle.” 

“Joe, where were you? We were starting to get worried.” Matt’s arms were folded and he was regarding Joe somewhat skeptically. Right. Matt barely knew him, at least right now. 

“Uh, well, Gomamon and I thought, maybe we should catch more fish?” It came out a question, and Joe’s eyes darted around the other six, praying none of them saw reason to get upset with him. There was no way they’d know that wasn’t his original reason for sneaking away from the group, but if he recalled correctly - especially in these firest days - tensions ran high. 

“Sweet!” Tai swept forward, grabbing some of the fish out of Joe’s arms. “Let’s get these cooked up!” Joe felt relief sweep through him, following Tai over the fire. Matt and Sora followed to help them set the fish up, TK and Patamon tagging along while Mimi left to finish her beauty sleep and Izzy continued to type away on his laptop.

Since it was his fish, Joe was tasked with staying up, keeping watch, and making sure they didn’t burn. He sighed, feeling more tired than the he should have, and watched the fire. He knew the food would come in handy - he couldn’t count the times they had nearly starved to death - but he wanted nothing more than to fall asleep. 

“Are you and Gomamon okay?” 

Joe jumped violently at the unexpected voice, and Gabumon grabbed Joe’s shoulder to keep him from accidently landing himself in the fire. 

“Oh, Gabumon, I didn’t notice you there.” Joe blinked sluggishly. Man, he must be even more tired than he thought he was. “Uh, sorry, could you repeat that?”

“You and Gomamon didn’t have any trouble while you were out there, did you?” Gabumon looked worried, head tilted slightly to the side. 

“N-no, we didn’t. It was just a nice fishing trip. Gomamon did most of the work.” Joe admitted. Gabumon still looked worried and glanced over at Joe’s partner, who was sprawled out with one of his front feet-hands resting on Joe’s ankle. Most of the digidestined were still cautious about their digimon and Joe wondered if they’d ever notice how quickly he and Gomamon had acclimated to each other. “Why?” 

“When I was Garurumon, I can smell a lot better.” Gabumon pointed to his nose for emphasis. “Both you and Gomamon smelt… weird. Like another digimon.” Joe’s eyes widened and he stopped breathing. 

Right. Ikkakumon. 

“D-did we?! I, well I have no idea why, hah, you sure it wasn’t just the fish?” Joe grinned extremely fakely, praying Gabumon would believe him. The wolf digimon learned forward, sniffing very purposefully. 

“Hmmm… maybe you just always smelled like that and I just never noticed.” Gabumon conceded, shrugging, and looked out across the lake. Joe followed his gaze to Matt, asleep with TK by his side. “I should get back to my partner now. Try to be careful Joe.” Gabumon waved splashed into the water, swimming away. Joe watching his retreating form and reached down, gently petting Gomamon. The digimon hummed in his sleep, scooting closer and laying ever more on Joe. 

“I’m glad I’ve got you here buddy.” Joe whispered. Even with the other digidestined here, he felt incredibly alone. The fish were almost done. He was sure the digimon were more than capable of waking up and defending them if something came along. Joe leaned back, looking up at the familiar other-worldly stars, and drifted off to sleep. 

oOo

“THE FISH!” Joe jerked awake, glasses skewing across his face. 

“Good morning princess.” Gomamon teased, chewing on a stick of fish. The fire was out, the sun was up, and the others were already getting ready for the day of more searching. Joe didn’t have the heart to tell them it was in vain, nor did he want to mess too much with the timeline. The fish were sitting in a nice pile next to where the first had been, and when Joe looked around a some of the others were eating it for breakfast. 

“Wha- who took care of the fish?” Joe rubbed his eyes and fixed his glasses. 

“I was awake.” Agumon was holding two fish between his claws. “Tai was afraid you’d fall asleep and told me to watch the food.”

“Huh. Thanks?” Joe shifted around until he could see Tai across the way, stretching out and saying something to Sora, and felt a small smile tug on his mouth. Tai, ever the watchful leader. “Well, we’d better pack them all up get moving right?” 

Joe shoved the fish into his bag, bapping away Gomamon’s paw as he tried to steal another. His memory of exactly when they found food and shelter and the order of events started to get jumbled up as the first adrenaline-filled days passed. He was still cautious about changing up events, but surely making the journey a bit more livable wouldn’t mess things up too badly. Once packed up Joe followed Agumon back to the shore where the others just about ready to go. Mimi was attempting to wash her hair in the lake water while Matt gently woke up TK. 

“Okay, we all ready to get this show on the road?” Tai asked, looking around the ragtag group, and when nobody disagreed started forward into the forest. 

“Hey, Tentomon, can I ask you something?” Joe said after a while.

“Why of course Joe! What is it you want to know?” Tentomon flew over, probably happy to have some questions to answer that weren’t about whether or not they were aliens. 

“How does digivolution… work?” Tentomon looked ecstatic at the question. It wasn’t something Joe had ever worried about before, but after having seen Bukamon be unable to digivolve and then Gomamon show absolutely no issue doing so, he couldn’t help but to wonder. 

“Well, I do have my own theories how it works.” Joe noticed the other conversations finishing off and getting quieter. Apparently the subject of digivolution was something everyone, digimon included, were interested in and curious about. “What do you know about digivolution already?”

“Just that you guys have different forms and can go up and down the forms?” Joe replied, leaving out of that he could name the different levels. Tentomon nodded.

“In the wild, digimon slowly gain energy and power over time and eventually digivolve. It took years for us to even go from our baby forms to in-training, none of us were thinking we’d reach rookie form for a long time, that is until you came along. When you were in trouble the first time and the sky opened up, we were all filled with the energy needed to digivolve, and it is my belief that it connected us to you.”

“Connected us?” Sora, who was walking on Joe’s left side, asked. “That sounds kind of… bad.”

“At the very least really weird!” Tai added. 

“It can’t be bad,” Palmon argued, “Not when it brings us so close together and helps us digivolve!”

“Yeah,” Joe looked down at Gomamon, “There’s worse things than being with some cute monsters.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have given a LOT of thought to how digivolution works n stuff. I really want to go into, but it's going to have to take a while. I can't make Tentomon know everything :T


	4. Chapter 4

Joe stared at the telephone poles as they passed them. His memory of the Telephone Desert was vague at best, especially since at some point all of the deserts they’d gone through started to blur together. They were all hot, seemingly endless, and had an odd habit of causing contention in the group. Then again, for being friends and having a decent bond with each other, the group also seemed to fight almost constantly. 

Not right now though, right now they were all united in a collective battle against the heat.

“This heat is going to ruin my hair!” Mimi complained.

“At least you have a hat.” Matt pointed out. “Some of us have to take all the heat straight to our heads.”

“We have so much fish, why didn’t we think of getting some water?” Tai panted and Agumon nodded his agreement. 

“And carry it in what?” Izzy pointed out. “That should really be our next priority, finding something to carry water in.”

“Is it just me, or do these telephone polls look off?”  Sora commented, and while nobody paused in their trekking, they did take another look. 

“None of the wires connect to each other.” Joe pointed out. He still didn’t really understand the digital worlds weird habit of creating random human objects.

“Odd, perhaps an oversight from the aliens?” Izzy mused. 

“Oh, guys, guys you have to see this!” Mimi stopped walking and ushered them all over, holding her compass out for all of them to see. Joe peeked over some of the shorter kids’ heads and watched as the compass’s arrow spun in one direction and then immediately in the other, at times just straight up spinning in a circle.

“Hmm, interesting,” Izzy held his chin in his hand before kneeling down and shuffling the desert sand through his hand. “It looks like the sand it actually made up of bits of meal, perhaps that’s what’s causing the compass to act oddly.”

“This world sure is weird.” Sora straightened up, making a face. “I can’t wait until we get home.”

“I HATE THIS HEAT!” Mimi shouted and Joe sighed, shifting his hold on Gomamon.

“Let’s start walking again guys, we aren’t getting any cooler standing here.” 

Eventually, after what felt like hours, they made it to the Yokomon village. The little pink digimon immediately swarmed them, happy to have guests and eager to get to know more about the ‘weird digimon’. 

“I’ve never seen anything like you before.” One of the Yokomon had pulled away from the group talking to Biyomon. Joe gave a small laugh.

“Well, you see, we’re not really from the digital world. We’re humans.” The Yokomon seemed to consider this before shaking his head. 

“No, you have to be a digimon. Maybe some kind of rookie version of an Angemon.” 

Before Joe could reply to that, a beeping surprised both him and the Yokomon. He looked down and saw his digivice’s screen flashing in time with the beeps. 

“Sorry, I need to check this out.” Joe gave the Yokomon an apologetic smile and the digimon smiled back before hopping over to talk to one of the other digidestined.

“What is it Joe?”Gomamon padded over, shaking some water out of his fur. The first thing the digimon had done when they’d gotten to the village was take a dunk into the water fountain.

“I… don’t know.” Joe fiddled with it for a moment, a small frown on his face. He didn’t remember this every happening last time they were here, and a quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that it wasn’t happening to any of the others. Experimentally he tried pressing one of the buttons and sure enough the beeping and light stopped, revealing text on the screen. 

 

_ Joe, _

_ Did you really think we were going to leave you all alone without any help from us? Of course, that’s assuming that this actually works out. Time travel isn’t exactly something I’m too knowledgeable about. But I’ll just have to go off of the hope that you get this, like a last ghost of your past - or future, however you view it. _

_ At any rate, if you’re getting this then it means we’ve arrived at the Yokomon village. Ultimately it’s up to you how things go, but personally if I were you I’d try not to change too many things on File Island - we learned a lot there. But if you’re in Yokomon village, now is a great time to try and make some allies. I know they’re just In-Training digimon, but someday they’re going to evolve, and we needed all they help we could get.  _

_ Good luck Joe, and please, give the old us a shot, _

_ Izzy. _

 

Joe dropped his digivice, hand shaking, eyes staring at where it had been in his hands. 

“Joe, what happened?” Gomamon asked more seriously. Joe just shook his head, at a loss for words as his mind spun a million miles an hour. Izzy - the Izzy of the future, of Joe’s memories - had  _ known  _ about Joe going back in time, had somehow put that message into Joe’s digivice.

It also only occured to Joe now that those people were gone. What severity of  _ gone,  _ Joe wasn’t sure, but Izzy made it sound like death. ‘ _ A last ghost of your past’.  _ Joe shook his head again, tears sparking in his eyes. His friends were gone, he was all alone out here in the past with a bunch of people that didn’t know him. Joe wiped away some tears, but they were cascading down his face now.

“Joe?”

TK stood off to the side, giving him a concerned look. 

“I-” Joe’s voice was choked and hoarse, and he shook his head with even more force. “I- I have to go.” He stood up abruptly, thankful that the rest of the digidestines were preoccupied by the Yokomon, and took off out of the village, down the hill and back to the desert. He collapsed to the ground there, the hot sand all around him and yet he could care less. 

For a long while, he just as there and cried. He was tired, hot, hungry, thirsty, and right now he felt so very alone with the weight of the future looming over him. Izzy made it sound like Joe was supposed to be doing  _ something,  _ like there was a plan he was supposed to be aware of, but he wasn’t. Instead he was just confused and sad.

Eventually Joe became aware of Gomamon next to him. The digimon didn’t look confused anymore, and he was holding Joe’s digivice in his mouth. Joe breathed out slowly, trying to calm down, but it was hard. Hard to get past finding out this thing he was going through was planned, he may’ve even volunteered for it, he just didn’t remember. 

“They’re-” Joe started before it dissolved into another sob, but even if it hurt he had to say it allowed, “They’re gone, Gomamon, they’re gone.”

Gomamon didn’t reply right away,l climbing into Joe’s lap and brushing away some of his tears. Joe pulled the digimon close to his chest, the familiar feeling of his fur soothing, and slowly Joe’s sobs faded off into silent tears. 

“I’m still here,” Gomamon comforted, “And they’re just not who you knew yet. They will be, one day.” 

“When did you get so wise?” Joe gave a watery laugh.

“I’ve been spending too much time around Tentomon.” Gomamon laughed. 

They stayed like that for a bit, just the two of them in the hot sand. Joe still didn’t understand why he was here, in the past. It still terrified him, knowing what was going to happen. But at least the ‘future’ Izzy was still helping, in a way. He had said not to mess with the events on this island, and to make friends with the Yokomon. Okay. He could do that. 

Joe stood back up slowly, looked up to the Yokomon village - just as a wave of pink started piling down. 

“What?!” Joe jumped, watching the river of Yokomon running out of their village and to the nearby abandoned ship. 

“C’mon!” Gomamon leapt through the sands “Let’s go find out what’s going on!”

The two of them ran over to the base of the ship, where Tai and Sora were ushering the pink digimon inside.

“What’s going on?!” Joe shouted over the panicking Yokomon. 

“Joe, there you are!” Mimi peeked out from inside of the ship. “Hurry, get inside!” Not that he had too much of a choice, the stampede of Yokomon pushing him along with them. TK was in there too, sitting on the ground and holding onto Patamon, eyes wide with fear, and Izzy was in a corner hugging his laptop close to his chest and staring out the opening. 

“What happened?” Joe repeated. 

“Oh, it’s terrible!” Palmon cried, “The Meramon’s dried up all the water and it coming to burn down the village!” 

“Oh.” Joe’s eyes widened. He had totally forgotten about the Meramon here. 

“BIYOMON!” All of the digidestines’ heads turned to the cry form Sora and Joe was just able to see when Sora abandoned her job of ushering the Yokomon in and start to run back up to the village where her partner was. 

_ ‘If I were you I’d try not to change too many things on File Island.’ _

Joe swallowed, thinking of Izzy’s message. He trusted the kid genius. 

“Good luck Sora.” He whispered, watching her go.

“Oh, Sora, get back here!” Mimi begged, though she didn’t move from where she was, “It’s too dangerous!” 

The Yokomon continued to pour in, their voices bouncing off the metal in a great din that Joe could barely think through. Next to him, Mimi had put her hands over her ears, seeming to shrink into herself as if it would make the noise go away. Joe realized belatedly that he was shaking again, nerves kicking in as if realizing what he was planning to do and trying to stop him. He pushed past them and slogged his way to pile of rubble near him. He climbed up as high as he could, bringing his hands to his mouth.

“HEY, CALM DOWN!” A few of the digimon near him got quiet, but most of them were still too frazzled to get quiet.

“PLEASE, CALM DOWN NOW!” Gomamon tried to shout along with him, but still they weren’t making much headway. Luckily, Tentomon seemed to catch on what was going on and flew over to them.

“ _ SUPERSHOCKER!” _

The electric shock rang through the air, momentarily increasing the sound before all the Yokomon quieted down. Even the new ones (which was finally slowed down to a trickle) seemed to take the cue, all eyes on Joe. Tentomon nodded to Joe, zipping back over to over above Izzy’s head. Joe clenched his hands, looking at Izzy. Make them allies? Okay, he’d try. 

“We’ve got it under control!” Joe was sure he’d be much more convincing if his voice wasn’t shaking, and he winced. He cleared his throat and tried again. “There’s no need to panic, okay? We’re the D-, we’re here for a reason! We’ll protect you!” 

The ship was quiet, Joe’s heart thudding loudly in his ears. The vague sounds of a battle could be heard from outside. Joe looked over to his fellow Digidestined, biting his lip, suddenly not so sure he’d made such a good decision. 

“Y-Yeah!” TK piped up, standing up, “We’ll beat up all the bad guys!” 

Which was when the best possible news arrived.

“Hey guys!” Matt poked his head into the ship and Joe sighed in relief as they were no longer staring at him. “It’s safe to come out now! Sora and Birdramon calmed down Meramon!”

All around them, the Yokomon burst out into cheers, running back out the ship and up to the village, carrying all of the digidestined with them. Whether that was on purpose or not, Joe wasn’t sure, but he definitely didn’t mind not having to walk up the hill again. Meramon was apologizing to the nearby Yokomon. 

“I’m so glad all of the little guys are okay.” Mimi sighed with relief. 

“Yeah, me too.” Joe smiled. He looked at the girl next him, far less battle worn than the one he remembered. There was still the sheen of sweat on her brow, reminding him that none of them had had the chance to have any food or water yet. Joe dug through his bag and pulled out one of the water bottles. “Here. I was saving it, but there’s plenty of fresh water here to refill it anyway.”

“Oh thanks!” Mimi grinned and took it from him, eagerly downing it. 

“Ah c’mon, share a bit!” Palmon begged, fingers already digging into the ground. Mimi poured the water over them. 

He’d make this work. He had to.


	5. Chapter 5

Joe groaned, feet crying out in pain. Walking and walking and walking was always a staple in the Digiworld, but after months of it Joe had started to at least adapt to it, muscles used to the strain. Now, though, he was back to square one and hating every moment of it.

“Joe, Joe pick me up, I can’t walk another step.” Gomamon panted, flipping onto his back and wiggling his limbs in the air.

“If I stop to pick you up, I might not start walking again.” Joe sighed, going right past his partner. Not to mention, of course, that his arms essentially dead from carrying Gomamon yesterday.

“I’m calling a group break!” Tai declared as they approached a few of sparse trees in the field. Once under the shade they all collapsed to the ground. It was all Joe could do not to fall on his face. Gomamon wasted no time flopping on top of Joe’s back, and while the boy let out a huff at the extra weight he didn’t complain. 

“Why are we even moving so fast? It’s not like we’re headed anywhere.” Mimi complained. Joe pulled out their two water bottles and started passing them around the group. It would probably be the last of their supply until they could find another water source, but now that they knew he had them they continually requested them at every stop. Joe suspected more than a few of them were a little bit upset at him not having shared them during the desert, and to be fair he really should’ve. His own anxiety over running out had overruled his common sense.  That had not been his brightest moment.

He took out his digivice, looking it over. It hadn’t done anything since the Yokomon village, but he was able to bring up the message. He’d read it over several times now, but no matter how many times he did, the message never told him why he was here. Having Joe try and make allies though didn’t put the future in a positive light. Maybe Izzy figured out that there was no way they could defeat Myotismon? But still, why was it only Joe who still had his memories? After having had time to think of it, he was just more frustrated than afraid. 

“Guy’s check it out!” Joe looked up to see Tai pointing off into the distance, telescope in hand. “There’s smoke stacks over there! And a building!”

“All the way over  _ there?”  _ TK whined, and Matt ruffled his little brother’s hair. 

“Hey, it’s not that far. Maybe there’s some people over there, or more nice digimon with food.” Matt suggested. The thought of people made the rest of the others stir, though it took a good ten minutes until everybody was back on their feet. Mimi immediately started complaining, but Palmon was able to convince the girl to talk to her about fashion and distract her from the walk. 

“All for the best, my laptop needs to be charged. There ought to be an outlet there.” Izzy commented, closing his laptop. The walk to the factory was slow and agonizing, at least for most of them. Tai ran ahead for a while until he realized that they weren’t keeping up and ended up jogging right in front of the group, urging them to hurry up. Where the kid got his energy from, Joe would love to know.

Joe nodded to himself once they came to the part where the ground dropped down to the factory. Ah yes, he could remember nearly dying here. Not that that really said much, it seemed like every inch of the Digiworld had a life-or-death memory associated with it. At least they made a friend here

“I wonder what they make.” Sora wondered as they got to the base of the building.

“I hope it’s a way home.” Matt sighed. 

“Well, let’s get going!” Tai urged, leading the group in. 

“Hello?! Anybody home?!” Mimi shouted as they walked past moving gears, the lights ahead of them blinking on once they got close. Nobody answered her, and Joe felt a weight sink farther in his stomach. Not messing with time was important, but it felt like he was betraying them, or at least giving them false hope. They were the only people here, possibly the only people to have ever been here. 

“What’s it building Matt?” TK asked, just barely tall enough to peek over the counter and watch as the moving parts on the conveyor belt put together something. 

“I’m… not sure.” Matt admitted. 

_ *BEEP BEEP BEEP* _

The entire group flinched at the sudden and unexpected beeping noise. Joe’s hand flew to his pocket, heart pounding as he quickly slipped it out and hit a random button to get it to shut up. 

“What was that?” Sora had wrapped her arms around herself, looking around. 

“Must’ve just been some machine or something!” Joe blurted out a bit too quickly, sweating as everybody was now staring at him. “W-we should keep moving! In case it was an alarm or something!” 

“Yeah,” Tai said slowly, not quite looking suspicious but not entirely trusting either, “Let’s keep going.”

Joe sighed with relief as soon as the group started moving again and looked down at Gomamon. He hadn’t started walking again, instead staring at something. Joe followed his gaze to see Gabumon staring back. Without a second though Joe broke the tension by scooping Gomamon up, despite his sore muscles. 

“Let’s just find some people.” Joe said, hoping it sounded like he meant it. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Gabumon finally moved and caught back up with Matt. 

“What was that about?” Joe whispered. Gomamon shrugged in his arms. 

“I don’t know. Gabumon been weird for a couple days now.”

“Not like we can talk.” Joe admitted and Gomamon chuckled.

“Anyway, did you get another message?” After what had happened the last couple minutes, Joe had almost forgotten what the sound of his digivice must’ve meant. 

“Let’s see.”

Sure enough, displayed on his screen was a new message.

 

_ Joe, _

_ Andromon is already a good ally of ours after all we’ve done for him, but I suppose you’re going to have to get the Black Gear out of him all over again. I must say, a bit selfishly, that I hope you don’t try and take him down with you and Ikkakumon. I’m sure another situation, especially once we get seperated, would force Tentomon to digivolve anyway, but this moment has become so important to me that I don’t want it to change.  _

_ I’ve gone back here a couple times, but I’ve never found any useful information. My last recommendation would probably be to just see if you could convince us to rest up a bit - I doubt we’ll be able to avoid Monzaemon altogether, but perhaps we’ll be able to get away from him this time. _

_ Izzy _

 

“That’s… weird.” Joe mumbled.

“C’mon Joe, don’t fall behind!” Mimi departed from the group before he could elaborate the thought to Gomamon, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back into the group. “If you’re not careful you’re going to be the first one killed off!”

“Killed off?!” Joe couldn’t stop the jolt of fear at the thought. Mimi nodded.

“The robot that was beeping at us!” Joe swallowed as the irony of Mimi’s sentence sunk in. 

They continued to explore, eventually dividing into two groups. Joe stuck with Tai and Sora, following behind them like a silent shadow as he thought over Future-Izzy’s new message. What did Izzy mean by being back here a couple times? As far as Joe remembered, they’d only passed through here once. Maybe Izzy had landed here when they all got seperated? 

“Wait, guys stop!” Biyomon put out a wing and Joe nearly ran into Tai’s back at the sudden halt. 

“Why? What is it?” Sora looked around.

“Can’t you guys hear that? Like clanging metal?” Biyomon’s voice dropped a few decibels as silence reigned over the group. A shiver went up Joe’s spine as something akin to toppling metal reached their ears.

“That can’t be good.” Tai commented, and yet took a step in the sound’s direction.

“I’ll see if I can sniff out what it is.” Agumon offered, taking the lead. 

“Well, what did it say?” Gomamon whispered once Sora and Tai started talking again, still in Joe’s arms. Joe handed the digivice to Gomamon, who held it as best he could in his flipper-paws. 

“What do you think?” Joe whispered, keeping his voice as low as he could. 

“Hmmm. Izzy sucks at explaining things.” Gomamon replied definitively and slapped the digivive back into Joe’s hand.

“That’s it?” Joe hissed. Gomamon tilted his head back so that he was looking at Joe.

“You’re still worrying too much Joe! Izzy trusts us to do… whatever this is we’re doing. C’mon, lighten up a little.” 

Lightening up proved to be pretty hard when they came across Andromon. While Tai and Sora ran forward, looking down at the digimon while Biyomon and Agumon explained what they knew about him, Joe hung back. This next part wasn’t going to be fun. Izzy, why couldn’t he just chang this one little thing? 

“We should really move him out of there.” Sora said with a determined sound in her voice that made it clear that the ‘should really’ was actually a ‘will’. 

“Alright, I’ll grab one arm, you grab the other.” Tai suggested.

“... I’ll help out.” Joe reluctantly moved over to Tai’s side, grabbing one of the metal arms and pulling on it. It was harder than he remembered, tugging the heavy metal digimon out from beneath the gears. Did they ever find out how this guys even got stuck under there? He was fairly sure that Andromon was the only digimon they’d met here, had he just somehow… slipped?

“Hey, are you alright?” Sora crouched down and patted the digimon’s face

“Maybe a real good smack will do it!” Tai suggested, raising his hand. Before Sora could scold him, Joe saw the digimon’s eye open up. A trill of fear flood through him and next to him Gomamon stiffened. Oh. He hadn’t even realized, but he had instinctually started to do… whatever it was they did that made their digimon digivolve. He slammed down on the feeling, on the unseen internal action that had been going on. 

“Intruders!” Andromon grabbed Sora’s leg and he stood up, holding her upside down. 

“Hey, put her down!” Tai shouted. Both Biyomon and Agumon shot their attacks at Andromon but they had no effect. He threw Sora at Tai, who with the help of Agumon was able to catch her. 

“Maybe coming here was a bad idea.” Joe suggested, taking as top back and stamping down on the urge to have Gomamon digivolve yet again. 

“Agumon, shoot down those beams!” Tai ordered and Agumon aimed a pepperbreath up above Andromon. The metal I-beams came down, trapping him beneath them, and they all rejoiced in the small victory.

“So, we freed him from being trapped just to trap him again?” Gomamon crawled closer to the digimon. 

“Let’s get out of here, before he gets back up.” Sora was already by the door, gesturing for them to follow. 

_ No, I can do this, _ words sitting on Joe’s tongue that he didn’t say. He could  _ feel  _ that Gomamon knew they could - that they  _ should -  _ do something, they had the power to.

Every step they too, metal footsteps followed them, Andromon hot on their tail. They almost got caught on the bridge, but Tai managed to climb into a machine, somehow figure out the controls, and hook Andromon into the air, giving them a chance to run off. Still, the digimon followed them as they reached the second group. 

“We need to leave now!” Tai stressed.

“Why, what is it?” Matt seemed to have caught on to the serious tone in Tai’s voice, but before Tai could say exactly what, Andromon himself jumped through through the metal floor.

“Intruders, you will be eliminated!” The digimon declared like the villain of some b-rated movie.

“Not if we get you first!” There was now room out here, and Tai wasted no time in digivolving Agumon to Greymon. Matt followed suit, Garurumon charging Andromon. The digimon hardly seemed bothered by their presence, but they were able to move the fight away from the kids. They all watched from the ledge as the two champion digimon did their best. But quite frankly, their best just wasn’t enough. 

“Izzy, that code from before, I think maybe it’s the key to making me digivolve!” Tentomon, coming to some kind of conclusion that Joe had no context for, said urgently to Izzy. Izzy sat down and pulled out his laptop, tapping quickly away, and Joe looked back the the struggling Garurumon and Greymon. 

“We can’t.” Gomamon whispered, putting a flipper over Joe’s shoe.

But that was the thing. They  _ could.  _ They so easily  _ could.  _ When he’d had Gomamon digivolve just to test it out, it had taken almost no effort at all. Back at the Yokomon village, he’d been so busy with the Yokomon that digivolving hadn’t even crossed his mind. But here, so useless as he watching some of his best friends getting beat up, it was so hard to just sit back at let it happen. How did Izzy think he could do this?  _ Why  _ did Izzy think he could do this?!

Kabuterimon digivolved, huge and kind of gross looking - bugs had never been a favorite of Joe’s - and was able to destroy the black gear in Andromon’s leg. 

The digimon collapsed to his knees for a moment, a hand to his head, and when he stood up again Kabuterimon was readying another blast, Garurumon and Greymon getting back to their feet, but he put his arms up in the universal sign for surrender. Apparently it held the same meaning in the digimon world. 

“Please, let me apologize.” He said, and cautiously they all clambered down the flights of the building’s stairs to the ground level. “Something was interfering with my system. I’m usually not a violent digimon.”

“Sure had us fooled.” Tai commented. 

“Andromon, do you know how this place came to be?” Izzy stepped forward.

“I’m afraid not. But a group of humans travelling through the digital world… The deserts are dangerous. Here, let me show you so some underground tunnels.” Andromon offered.

“You mean we won’t have to walk in the sun anymore?” Mimi clasped her hands together, eyes practically sparkling. Andromon nodded. 

They filed into the sewer system and Joe hung back, looking up at Andromon. Something about what Andromon had said stuck with him.

“Andromon, have you seen humans here before?” Joe knew for a fact that they were the only humans on this island, in the entire digital world. Maybe Genai, but they weren’t entirely sure about that dude. Andromon’s gaze lifted, looking up into the sky.

“Many, many years ago. There is a legend of how the digimon Sovereign, protectors of our world, came to be. Most digimon from that time have long since been killed and reborn, memories worn away with each reincarnation. Even my memory, over the years and battles, have become corrupted. But I will never forget their faces.” He looked back down at Joe. “Good luck. May your journey prove easier than theirs.”


End file.
